Some matters of fact permit to see that the
limitless liberty of expression may actually be harmful for the general liberty
of individuals. Two issues in Spain have recently caught the attention of
public opinion upon Twitter.
The first one was some joking comments about a
politician’s murder posted by insensitive people. They applaud the crime
because ─ they argue ─ all of politicians are corrupt. Of course, I am
convinced that encouraging anybody to kill politicians or justifying any sort
of violence against them can’t be accepted by civilized people.
In the second case, thousands of tweets against
Jews were published because Maccabi of Tel Aviv beat Real Madrid in the final
of the European Basketball Champions League. Insults from some few idiots ran
through the web because anyone stupid else retweeted them again.
Certainly we could daily find thousands of
similar cases in the social networks. Many posts defaming women, gays, elders,
pop stars, football players, black people and white or red ones as well;
hundreds of tweets spreading mixed lies and half-truths throughout the world.
So what does happened in these two concrete circumstances?
In the murder of the woman who held a public
charge in the Spanish Autonomic Community of Castilla-León, the establishment
reacted in order to avoid their own loss of prestige and also to protect
themselves. They can’t permit people to use violence (nor physical neither
verbal) to express their annoyance.
In the campaign against Jewish, this issue is too
sensitive to be tolerated at all. ‘Final Solution of The Jewish Question’ by
Nazism was too terrifying to be forgotten, and we can’t afford that people
without any kind of historical memory or moral scruple talk calmly about it.
Therefore many Jewish Organisations protested and denounced that awful action.
It seems to me that any type of legal regulation
is necessary to avoid similar matters, because social life needs laws and rules
to be possible. There is no doubt that social networks are part of the social
life as well, aren’t they? Freedom of speech and expression needs guaranties to
develop itself rightly in a free and equal society. Can a well-weighted and
thoughtful legal regulation really become a jail to the blue bird?
